Together
by whatanauthorsgottado
Summary: Having two soulmates was difficult to balance, but they'd manage. Written for swpolyamoryweek on tumblr, day 1: soulmate AU. KothQuinnWarrior.


When Advena was much younger, she couldn't stop herself from tracing over the marks, even just _looking_ at them constantly – even long after she had memorized the words – at every possibly opportunity. The reminder that there was someone – two someones, in fact – that would be there for her, would care for and love her unconditionally, was a great comfort through everything.

Even when she left her brother behind.

Even when her first friend was killed in front of her.

Even through the abuse hurled at her in both academies, the whispers behind hands – _an alien Sith? Who could imagine? A worthless slave, bastard child. Why is she here? Sullying our academy. Dirtying our great halls. Travesty. Outrage. Not a care in the world for tradition any longer._

She could ignore it. She was who she was, and she knew that there would be at least two people in the galaxy who wouldn't care a bit about her status.

Well, perhaps one of them would, but the words on her left arm made it sound more like it would be worship than hatred. And the words were encouraging, considering her goals. _"I apologize for the delay, my lord."_ She would be Sith after all.

The other was less encouraging, but more intriguing. _"Welcome to the most suicidal rescue mission in history."_ She wondered who they would be rescuing – and who would be doing the rescuing. She hoped it was herself doing the rescuing – she would be no one's damsel in distress.

* * *

Malavai Quinn had never been overly fixated on the idea of soulmates. He knew nearly everyone had one, of course – so many people he knew, from classmates at the academy to fellow officers were obsessed with the tattoos on their bodies, their soulmates' first words to them written across their skin.

He thought it was ridiculous, the way grown men compared tattoos and debated the romance of them, and mocked some for words they had no control over.

The feeling had nothing to do with his own tattoos, of course, given that none of the others had seen them. Not only were they none of their business, but they were written across his chest, which he wasn't in the habit of showing to anyone.

In any case, he didn't think the idea of his soulmates to be so all-encompassing as to think about them at all times of the day – though in his rare moments of idleness, he did occasionally catch himself wondering what it would be like to have people who cared unconditionally for him.

The idea was much more comforting after his court-martial and subsequent "discussion" with his father, wherein he was called a disgrace no less than three times. At least there was someone who cared for him, instead of his name and prestige. Somewhere. Even if the words themselves didn't show it – asking for an introduction and calling someone an "acquaintance" didn't speak to a great deal of immediate emotional bonding – but just knowing they existed helped. He'd worry about their relationship later.

* * *

Koth spent a lot of time when he was younger wondering about his soulmates, not that he would ever admit it. Most people wouldn't fault him for it though – a lot of people were obsessed with the idea of having that perfect person for them, waiting somewhere out there just to meet them. A lot of people were also obsessed with the idea of _other_ people's soulmates. Koth drew a lot of attention from that crowd, given that he had two tattoos, both in prominent positions on his forearms. After the third time someone asked him about them in public, he took to wearing long sleeves at all times, and only showing people one of the tattoos if they asked.

As he grew older and no soulmates revealed themselves, he stopped wondering about them. They'd show up eventually, and whoever they were, they couldn't be too bad. They were his soulmates after all.

When the war against the galaxy at large started, he considered that his soulmates might be outlanders. He hoped not. Outlanders were _weird_.

Of course, his soulmates were apparently pretty weird too, as evidenced by the words of his right tattoo: _"My lord, with all due respect, who the hell is this?"_ The left one was a bit better, though he had to wonder why the first thing someone would say to him would be a reminder to be careful. He was thankful for the reminder, though, even if it wasn't spoken – he tended to be better at looking out for others than at keeping himself safe, much to the exasperation of his crew.

* * *

Advena and Vette could hear raised voices around the corner from the door they entered through, but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Wordlessly, they moved into the building's inner doorway and stood watching as a dark-haired soldier grabbed a younger man by the collar and shook him, as if to emphasize a point. Over the younger man's shoulder, the other spotted the pair standing in the doorway and released his subordinate with a curt dismissal. The young man left without another word, shaking slightly.

Advena watched the man's eyes as they trailed over her face, pausing for a second at the tattoos and cranial horns that marked her as a Zabrak, then continuing down until they reached the lightsabers that hung at her belt. Immediately, his eyes dropped to the floor and he bowed slightly.

"I apologize for the delay, my lord. Lieutenant Malavai Quinn. I am to be your liaison here on Balmorra." He awaited her reply in silence, but she couldn't say anything – all the breath felt like it had left her lungs at those words. Beside her, she felt the surprise emanating off Vette – they both knew what those words meant to Advena.

Malavai Quinn's eyes left the floor and met hers as he frowned slightly in confusion – the delay in her reply had been unusually long. She summoned up her remaining breath and brain cells and blurted, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

His eyes widened in shock and his stiff posture suddenly relaxed. "You… you are…"

Neither of them moved, frozen in shock, until Vette mercifully spoke up. "I'm just gonna… go find a cantina. You two have fun in here." She clapped Advena on the shoulder and headed out the door, startling them both into action.

Within a moment, Advena found herself standing in front of Quinn, his hands clasped in hers and his face very near to hers. His deep blue eyes were shining, the corners of his lips turned up into what would surely have been a grin on a more expressive face. "I don't have words," she whispered. "I… It's… I can't believe I'm finally meeting you."

"And I you."

Suddenly, she laughed a little. Her heart felt light, like the world was slowly coming into balance after being twisted around. It felt somehow incomplete… but it was an improvement.

"My lord… I don't believe you introduced yourself."

"I… you're right." It seemed to her like he should already know her name, but it couldn't be helped. "Advena Tarmikos."

"Advena." They smiled together, her name on his tongue a beautiful sound. "It is good to meet you, finally." He straightened, pulling away from her slightly, looking over her shoulder to the door as if he were expecting someone to walk in. She turned to follow his gaze, but there was nothing there.

"Is something wrong?"

His eyes snapped back to her. "No, it's just… it feels as though something's missing."

Now that he mentioned it, she could feel it too. "You're right. What… oh." It seemed they both realized it at once.

"I don't suppose… you've found our third?" he asked somewhat awkwardly.

She shook her head, but pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head against his chest – carefully, so as not to injure him with her horns. "No. But we will. We'll find them, together, somehow."

She couldn't see it, but she knew his blue eyes were blazing. "We will."

* * *

Advena stumbled down the hallway after Lana, pulling herself forward through the pain and dizziness without a word. In front of them stood a massive durasteel door next to a security terminal on lockdown. It would be of no use to them in getting through.

The console, however, served perfectly as a brace for her to rest against. She took it gratefully, letting some of her weight leave her tired legs. Normally, that sort of a run-and-firefight would leave her as tired as a leisurely walk through a park or something, but she clearly hadn't yet recovered from her stint in carbonite yet. She cursed Arcann, his Skytroopers, and the carbonite itself for leaving her unable to support herself like this. It was rather pathetic.

Fortunately, Lana pretended not to notice, focusing her efforts on trying to get the door out of the way. She managed to open a small space, but it was too much – the door dropped back into position. Lana turned away with a huff.

Suddenly, Advena realized they were missing one of their number. "Where's that droid?"

"Generating false security alerts in other sectors. Capable little astromech-" Suddenly, her wrist comm went off. She held it up to her mouth. "Yes, I read you." She listened for a moment – Advena couldn't hear the other side of the conversation. "Why, is there a problem?" Lana rolled her eyes and tossed Advena a comm device, tapping at her own comm for a second. "Yes, I've patched her in."

Advena missed the first few words in attaching the comm to her vambrace, but caught the important parts. "Welcome to the most suicidal rescue mission in history. Hope you're everything Lana said you were."

She couldn't reply, having had the breath knocked out of her – and not by her physical ailment. Could this man – Koth, as Lana called him – be her second soulmate?

She felt Quinn's absence even more poignantly in that second.

A movement on one of the monitors of the security terminal caught her eye, and she moved to get a closer look, distracting herself from her pain. The monitor in question displayed a feed into the carbonite room, where a person dressed in fairly elaborate gold armor stood studying the carbonite block Advena had been imprisoned in. As she watched, another person stepped into the room – a familiar figure to both herself and Lana, judging by the other woman's sudden sharp breath.

"I've seen her before."

"No," Lana breathed, paying her no attention, gaze fixated on the monitor.

They watched as Vaylin executed the armored person, then looked up at the camera with an awful – if slight – grin, before the feed went black. Lana and Advena looked at each other, and Advena was surprised to see fear bright and obvious in Lana's eyes.

"We're not ready for Vaylin," she said simply.

"Then let's get out of here."

Together, they turned to the door. Reaching deep into the Force, Lana managed to drag the door open enough for them to dash through. It slammed shut behind them as soon as she released her hold on it.

Not two minutes into their resumed dash down the hallway, Koth was on the comm again. "Hope you're not too close yet!"

"What's happening?" Lana relplied.

"Nothing I can't handle, but we need to move the pickup!"

Lana glanced at Advena, who was once again leaned over breathing heavily, holding her side in pain. "We don't have time for this."

"Well, if I land now, I'll be shot to pieces. So think of it as a personal favour to me, huh? Duck through another tower and I'll find you."

Advena managed to compose herself enough to reply, cutting Lana off from what would likely have been a scathing reply. "Watch your back out there."

The pause before his reply and his low, slightly shaking tone when he did was long enough to confirm her earlier suspicions. "Seems to be my number one pastime these days…" He paused to compose himself, then signed off with snark: "Always love our little excursions, Lana. Back with you shortly."

Advena blew out a chuckle, drawing a look from Lana. "What?"

"Nothing. What now?"

Lana glanced at her from the corner of her eyes, turning back down the hallway towards wherever their next destination was. "We have to keep moving."

* * *

Much later, on the newly rediscovered Gravestone, Advena found Koth working in the engine room. He turned and stood as she entered, folding his arms across his chest. "Guess it's time we talked, huh."

The atmosphere in the room was tense, awkward. Neither of them knew how to open the topic without making it worse.

Finally, Advena sighed and leaned against one of the rails surrounding the engine columns, looking down at the floor. One of her hands moved up to wrap around her upper arm where the tattoo of Koth's first words was; the other touched one of her horns, tugging at it a little in a nervous tic she'd never grown out of.

"Don't pull too hard on that," Koth said, reaching out to pull her hand away from her horn. "Looks like that might hurt."

"Only if I pull hard," she murmured. His hand was still covering hers, and she turned it to entwine her fingers with his. "It's funny. You always hope your first words to your soulmate are going to be something profound."

"May not be profound, but they've saved my skin a couple times. Mine were worse."

"Not so bad. I'd hoped I'd be the one doing the rescuing, though."

Koth grinned at that. "Don't you know, the dashing hero's supposed to be the one saving the damsel."

She laughed and shoved his chest playfully. "I haven't been a damsel a day in my life."

"That's not what I saw. But I'll take your word for it."

She rolled her eyes and moved for the door. "I'm hardly going to stand here and let myself be insulted," she said, putting on an air of mock offense. "I'll go where I get the respect I deserve."

Koth reached out and took her wrist, gently pulling her back to him so they were standing face to face. "All else aside… it's good to finally meet you. Even if you are a crazy outlander."

"And it's good to finally find our third, after all this time."

"Third… So you know our other soulmate, then?"

"We were married, before I was trapped in carbonite." Her eyes hardened at the reminder. "I don't know where he is now, though. Lana hasn't been very forthcoming."

Koth frowned. "Hope they're alright." He could see in her eyes that she was planning on interrogating Lana – and intent on doing so this very instant – so he decided to distract her. "Hey. Can you tell me what they're like? If it's another outlander as crazy as you, I'm gonna need a briefing."

Judging by the look she gave him, she knew very well what he was trying to pull, but she gave in anyway. "Well, first of all…"

* * *

She couldn't believe her eyes at first. There, being restrained by a Skytrooper…

"Quinn!" she yelled, leaping forward with her blades at the ready. Before she even landed, she'd already bisected and decapitated the Skytrooper, the momentum of her leap carrying her into another swing at an approaching droid. Another coming up behind her was taken out by a precise shot to the head from Koth's blaster rifle.

And then the way was clear and Quinn was standing there staring at her, stunned, eyes wide and arms out and she was in his arms within the space of a thought, kissing him like her life depended on it. His arms wrapped around her and her hands pressed into his back and even though he didn't feel the same, his body structure thinner than she remembered, he still felt like home.

"So when do I get an introduction?" Koth's voice broke through her haze, and she opened her eyes again as Quinn's lips parted from her own. His mouth twisted slightly in annoyance as he turned to look at the interrupter.

"My lord, with all due respect, who the hell is this?" Quinn ground out.

"Koth Vortena. Your third soulmate." He held out his hand for Quinn to take, but Quinn ignored it in favour of grabbing his blaster rifle out of his hands and firing over his and Advena's shoulders. Koth flinched, then turned to look at the wreckage of the Skytrooper behind him.

"Malavai Quinn," the man himself said, composed as ever, "but I believe now isn't the best time for introductions." He handed Koth back his blaster rifle, stooping to take one from the Skytrooper remains at his feet.

"Looks like you're right. Let's get out of here first, then."

Advena grinned, igniting her lightsabers. "Look at you two, getting along so well already. How sweet."

Both men just rolled their eyes, moving automatically to cover each other and Advena from the approaching mass of Skytroopers. "We're just perfect that way."


End file.
